Stage 3 – Beacu to Iliomar – 13 September

“Search 2 Retain” extend their lead

The third stage of the Tour de Timor saw Luke Fetch and Paul van der Ploeg extend their lead. Van der Ploeg took out the stage in 2h33:34 alongside team mate Fetch. The Rapid Cycling team of Adrian Jackson, Tinker Juarez and Ben Mather came third to fifth respectively, with Jackson 2 minutes 27 seconds behind van der Ploeg.

“It was a pretty good stage for us, the Search 2 Retain team was just controlling the bunch for the first 45km along the flat roads” said yellow jersey holder van der Ploeg “The hard packed section along the beach was awesome” “then when we got into the hills it was loose and rocky and it was every man for himself.”

Jackson was again just off the top position and now is further behind on the yellow jersey “Luke and Paul broke away at the bottom of the last steep climb, I was struggling in the rough stuff, my light frame bounces off all of the rocks, the other bigger guys just power through them”.

“At the moment they’re looking pretty strong, I’m third place overall so definitely try to hold that, but you never know what happens still three days to go” said Jackson.

Juarez again showed his strength with another solid ride bringing him into fourth place. “Scenery was awesome, it definitely made me want to just pull over to the side, it was amazing to see so much beach with no one there” he said. “This stage is so far my favourite one”.

Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi of Malaysia came in 13th in 2h45:41, after going down on the first decent. “I fell down because there were just too many loose rocks on the way down”, “from my teams point of view, we’re still targeting the top three, we’re going to go for second place because I think first place is just too far for our team to catch”. “There are three more stages, I’ll at least try to win one stage if I can”. Shahrin came in 5 mins later in 16th.

Nelson da Silva was amongst the top again, the Portuguese trainer of the Timorese national team arrived in 15th with a time of 2h47:56.

Orlando da Costa again came in as the first Timorese rider at 25th, with a time of 2h56:55 “It was good because the uphill was the difficult part” the climbing specialist explained “I tried to keep up with the Australian riders, at the uphill I was able to break away.” “I am happy with today’s result as it is an improvement on the past two stages.” Jacinto da Costa came in 33rd with a time of 3h04:05 and Antonio martins was 38th with 3h10:13.

Amongst the women, team “Nothing Good Can Come of This” came out on top with Naomi Hansen, Katherine O’Shea and Peta Mullens arriving in the top three positions. Hansen came in 2h58:34. “Our team tactic today was pretty much hang with the front bunch as long as we could, we were kinda fortunate that all three of us were there at the bottom of the first climb” said Hansen, “I consider myself to be quite a good technical rider, but I think a lot of people will find it hard because it is loose.”

Ahmed Yani was the first Indonesian in, coming in at 31st with a time of 3h00:11, “today was really hard, the route was very rocky and it was really hard for me to ride because my hands were hurting from just trying to hold onto the bike. I’m feeling pain all over actually”. “Yesterday I fell down and injured my left knee, so I just wanted to finish today” “Timor-Leste is really beautiful to ride in and the people are beautiful too, just like in Indonesia, I’m definitely going to come back next year if I can get sponsors”. Yani’s team-mate Sugianto Binjai was not too far behind with a time of 3:11:39 in 43rd position.  The 69km stage was a largely coastal route winding inland at time to pass by crops of rice and corn. Riders were treated to a near constant supply of villages and inhabitants cheering them on for the first 45km before the route took an inland turn onto a rough, loose road winding its way through forrest, over river and eventually up an ascent into Iliomar.

Iliomar is the capital of the sub-district, also named Iliomar, in the district of Lautem. Iliomar’s population at the 2004 census was approximately 7000. There has been some level of development since 2004, but the town has retained its charming village atmosphere. Word from riders is that Iliomar’s children have given the loudest welcome to finishers yet.

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